9/16: Communicating, part 2

Global SKILLs midweek Connect

Greetings and Happy Midweek!

And it’s also mid-month once again. I decided each mid-month to revisit previous posts and update, share what others have added or go a bit more deeply into a topic we’ve begun to explore.

Today I have a fun added note to last week’s post on door-knocking dynamics (check out last week’s thoughts on this: posted 9/9 https://www.globalskillspartners.com/blog-1). This insight was contributed by a global nomad friend who lived once upon a time in Paraguay. She confirmed that clapping before entering a courtyard or house is the way to go rather than knocking. She had a very interesting cultural moment trying to recall how many claps - what ‘felt right’...that’s a full conversation we can have in the future!

I was also invited to delve deeper into cross-cultural communicating - online and through social media, versus in person (the in-person thoughts were posted 8/19, https://www.globalskillspartners.com/blog-1,) Although I don’t spend a lot of time on social media (facebook, twitter, etc), I am active on several online forums, LinkedIn, What’sApp (mainly with friends outside the US) and I text and email extensively.

Several things I am reminded of frequently are to be very, very careful about

** what I send (is it something I would be ok with anyone reading, in case it gets shared more broadly than I intended)

** how I send it (should I send now as is, or wait, reread tomorrow and then if it sounds good, send)

** when I send it (is it the middle of the night for the recipient - maybe better to wait til a good time for them to receive).

Having made several mistakes on each of these fronts...I do try to be more careful than ever!

How about you...any personal experiences, tips or insights on either of these topics you’d like to share?

Thanks for being part of this growing community. I’d love to hear from each of you!

Until next week,

Betsy